The Lowy Institute

On Wednesday 19 January 2011, as part of our Distinguished Speaker Series, The Rt Hon William Hague MP, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, spoke at the Lowy Institute on opportunities for the Commonwealth in a networked world.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Friday 10 December, the Lowy Institute brought together the Hon Dr Craig Emerson MP, Minister for Trade, and an expert panel including Alex Thursby, the Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific, Europe & America, ANZ Banking Group and Anwarul Hoda, the Chair Professor of ICRIER’s Trade Policy and WTO Research Program in New Delhi, for a keynote speech and an extended discussion on the forces shaping Australia’s trade policy environment.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Wednesday 8 December, Cate Sumner and Tim Lindsey launched their new Lowy Institute Paper, 'Courting reform'. Opening remarks on the paper were provided by the Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia, The Hon. Diana Bryant, and Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia, The Hon. Patrick Keane.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In his new Analysis, 'The stakeholder spectrum: China and the United Nations', Michael Fullilove describes how China conducts itself in New York and the positions it takes on issues such as peacekeeping, Iran and North Korea. He lays out these approaches on what he calls a ‘stakeholder spectrum’.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In March 2011 the National Museum of Australia will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the opening of its building in Canberra. We are well used to the idea that the Museum has a role in explaining national identity. Yet the National Museum - like museums around the world - has to make a place for itself not only in a national context but in a global one. At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 1 December, the Museum’s Director, Andrew Sayers, explored the new phenomenon of the 'world museum' that has developed as institutions in Britain, Europe and the United States have become engaged with global communities, including Australia.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 30 November 2010, the Lowy Institute was pleased to host a major address on asylum policy by Scott Morrison, the Shadow Minister for Productivity and Population and Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. In his speech, 'A real solution', Scott outlined a comprehensive global, regional and domestic approach to this complex and controversial issue.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Friday 5 November, two leading commentators on US politics and foreign policy, Dr Michael Fullilove and Daniel Flitton, provided some immediate analysis of the mid-term results as part of the Lowy Institute’s ‘Food for Thought’ program in Melbourne.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 25 November, as part of the Institute's Distinguished Speaker Series, Ethan Nadelmann, Director of the US Drug Policy Alliance, argued that the 'war on drugs' has been ineffective, counterproductive and expensive, with dire consequences for national and international stability. He analysed the evolution of global drug control during the 20th century, the growing movement for reform, and potential futures for global drug control.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 13-14 November, Japan hosted the 18th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Yokohama. Mark Johnson, who was at Yokohama as one of the three Australian representatives on the APEC Business Advisory Council, provided a report card on the Yokohama meetings.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Thursday 18 November, Dr Megan Clark, Chief Executive of CSIRO, delivered the 2010 Lowy Lecture on Australia in the World. In her lecture, 'Science and Australia's place in the world', available here, Dr Clark argued that Australia's science and innovation capability are fundamental to our future as a nation and our place in the world.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do leaders matter? Are the trajectories of nations directed by unstoppable social and economic forces regardless of who’s in charge, or are the histories of states those of a handful of highly influential leaders? At the Wednesday Lowy Lunch on 20 October, Fergus Hanson and Alex Oliver reported on an intensive empirical pilot study tracing the pathways taken by leaders in Timor-Leste and Samoa.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 17 November, Scott Featherstone discussed the development of Africa’s political economies with a particular emphasis on the continent’s recent spurt of sustained economic growth. He explored how sustainable this is, what might prevent it from continuing, and what the implications of this are for Australia’s policy-makers and companies.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On 2 November 2010 the US mid-term elections took place for the House of Representatives, the Senate and many important governorships. These elections are enormously important in their own right but they may also have significant implications for the presidency of Barack Obama. At the Wednesday Lunch on 10 November, two leading commentators on US politics, Dr Michael Fullilove and Brendon O'Connor, provided analysis of the mid-term results.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scientific research has become one of the most important economic drivers, especially in countries which are poor in natural resources. Yet, the role of science in modern society goes beyond the production of knowledge. At the Wednesday Lunch on 3 November, Professor Dieter Imboden explored the delicate relationship between research, politics, economy and society.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For more than half a century the view that radiation represents an extreme hazard has been accepted. At the Wednesday Lowy Lunch on 20 October, Professor Wade Allison challenged that view by facing the question "How dangerous is ionising radiation?"See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a follow-up to the Lowy Institute MDG conference held in Sydney in June and the recent UN MDG summit in New York, the Lowy Institute, through The Myer Foundation Melanesia Program, convened a special panel of diverse commentators and experts from government and non-government sectors to tackle some of the key issues that are of particular importance for Australia as a large and growing provider of overseas aid.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Obama administration inherited a complex and interrelated set of problems in the Middle East - a prolonged war in Iraq, Iran's quest for a nuclear weapon capability and a moribund Middle East peace process. On 13 October in our Wednesday Lowy Lunch series, Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer examined the U.S. administration's efforts to deal with these issues and the prospects for success.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the Wednesday Lunch at Lowy on 6 October, Professor John McAneney, the Director of Risk Frontiers and a Professorial Fellow in the Division of Environment and Geography at Macquarie University, addressed the contribution of global climate change to the rising cost of natural disasters.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The realm of international affairs has become a 'state of nature' with asymmetrical powers of a kind that Thomas Hobbes would recognise as entirely familiar. What, then, should be the prescription to cure this ill? At the Wednesday Lunch on 29 September, Dr Simon Longstaff, Executive Director of the St James Ethics Centre, explored how the discipline of ethics helps to address this question.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this panel discussion on China Radio International's Beyond Beijing program, Research Associate and Asia Security Project Coordinator Raoul Heinrichs explores the future prospects for the Six Party Talks, and for security on the Korean Peninsula.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.